Skeet Ulrich

Actor

Born: 20 January 1970

Birthplace: Lynchburg, Virginia

Best known as: Star of the sci-fi TV show Jericho

Name at birth: Brian Ray Trout

His roles in the horror films Scream and The Craft made 1996 the year Skeet Ulrich captured the hearts of excitable teens. His appearance in Scream as Billy, the boyfriend of Neve Campbell's plucky Sidney, was a particular success. After appearing in As Good As it Gets (1997, starring Jack Nicholson) and The Newton Boys (1998, directed by Richard Linklater), Ulrich was being touted as part of yet another new generation of young actors on the way up, but his career somehow hit a plateau. He played notorious hacker Kevin Mitnick in the 2000 film Takedown, and after a number of forgettable films, including Soul Assassin (2001) and Nobody's Baby (2001), he found work in the short-lived TV series Miracle (2003). He had more success as the star of the post-apocalyptic drama Jericho, which ran from 2006-08.

Extra credit:

Ulrich got his last name from his stepfather after his parents were divorced and his mother remarried. His stepfather is Nascar driver D.K. Ulrich… He told Interview magazine in 1996, “I was nicknamed ‘Skeeter’ in Little League because I was small and fast, like a mosquito flying across the outfield”… He was born in Virginia but raised in Concord, a town near Charlotte, North Carolina… Ulrich was married to actress Georgina Cates from 1997 until their divorce in 2005. They had twins born in 2001: son Jakob Dylan and daughter Naiia Rose… Ulrich looks just a little like fellow actor Johnny Depp.